{"id":2318,"date":"2019-08-06T11:06:48","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T10:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/?p=2318"},"modified":"2019-08-06T11:06:52","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T10:06:52","slug":"former-cruz-aides-working-for-cameroon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/?p=2318","title":{"rendered":"Former Cruz aides working for Cameroon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FORMER CRUZ AIDES WILL WORK FOR CAMEROON: <\/strong>Two former aides to Sen. Ted Cruz<\/a><\/strong> (R-Texas) have signed on to represent Cameroon\u2019s government in Washington despite recent allegations of serious human rights abuses by the government. David Polyansky<\/strong>, Cruz\u2019s former chief of staff; Catherine Frazier<\/strong>, another former Cruz aide; and Jimmy Soni<\/strong>, a former Huffington Post <\/strong>managing editor who later worked for former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens<\/strong>, will advise Cameroon\u2019s government on public relations. They\u2019ll promote a \u201cpositive and favorable image\u201d of Cameroon\u2019s government through digital ads and \u201cby placing targeted op eds in conservative-oriented outlets in order to foster a robust and growing partnership narrative into the future,\u201d according to a contract filed with the Justice Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Cameroon has found itself saddled with a less-than-positive-and-favorable image in recent months. The Trump administration has stopped providing as much military aid to Cameroon\u2019s government because of what Gen. Thomas Waldhauser<\/strong>, the head of United States Africa Command, described in congressional testimony<\/a> in February as the \u201calleged atrocities\u201d it had committed. Mausi Segun<\/strong>, Human Rights Watch<\/strong>\u2019s executive director for Africa, wrote last month<\/a> that Cameroon\u2019s government had responded to separatist threats by \u201cburning hundreds of homes, killing civilians, and detaining and torturing alleged separatists in a gendarme-run prison<\/a> in the capital, Yaound\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 There\u2019s a long history, of course, of Washington lobbyists and public relations hands representing governments accused of committing atrocities, dating back to Paul Manafort<\/strong>\u2019s work for Ferdinand Marcos<\/strong>, the infamous Filipino dictator. Polyansky, Frazier and Soni are representing Cameroon through Clout Public Affairs<\/strong>, a division of Axiom Strategies<\/strong>, a consulting firm run by Jeff Roe<\/strong>, who managed Cruz\u2019s presidential campaign. Cameroon also retains Squire Patton Boggs<\/strong> to lobby on its behalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Asked about the Cameroonian government\u2019s human rights record, Clout defended its work. \u201cClout is pleased to be working with Cameroon to highlight the strong and developing relationship between our two countries,\u201d the firm said in a statement. The firm noted that Cameroon had \u201cbeen a longtime partner to U.S. military operations in Africa, and serves as a key ally in the United States\u2019 effort to combat the radical Islamist group\u00a0Boko Haram<\/strong>, which has for far too long victimized and ravaged innocent civilians in the region.\u201d The contract is worth $55,000 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more on Politico<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FORMER CRUZ AIDES WILL WORK FOR CAMEROON: Two former aides to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have signed on to represent Cameroon\u2019s government in Washington despite recent allegations of serious human rights abuses by the government. David Polyansky, Cruz\u2019s former chief of staff; Catherine Frazier, another … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[385,301,194,598],"class_list":["post-2318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-boko-haram","tag-cameroon","tag-human-rights","tag-us"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2319,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions\/2319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}